WHAT! "House GOP Classifies Pizza As A Vegetable To ‘Prevent Overly Burdensome’ Regulations"

This is pure madness!

thinkprogress.org...

Earlier this year, the USDA made an attempt to bolster the nutrition guidelines for the federal school lunch program. Under the new guidelines, for instance, school lunches would be limited to one cup of starchy vegetables a week and the ability of schools to count tomato sauce on pizza towards their fruit and vegetables requirement would be scaled back. But House Republicans, in a new spending plan unveiled yesterday, have done away with those changes

This is right up there with St. Ronnie trying to make ketchup a vegetable!

The spending bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. The department’s proposed guidelines would have attempted to prevent that.

The changes had been requested by food companies that produce frozen pizzas, the salt industry and potato growers. Some conservatives in Congress have called the push for healthier foods an overreach, saying the government shouldn’t be telling children what to eat.

Ah! Now it makes sense! Classic GOP move!

So how do YOU feel about your kid's school lunch using pizza as a vegetable?

Sometimes you have to counter absurdity by being absurd.

Originally posted by Carseller4
Sometimes you have to counter absurdity by being absurd.

So basically, even though this is a GOP stunt, it's somehow President Obama's fault?

Weak

reply to post by negativenihil
Hmmm, I don't know.

Salad is not a vegetable, but I'm guessing no one would blink if some bureaucrat decided to call it one. Salad is composed usually and mostly of vegetables.

Applesauce could be called a fruit, but it isn't composed solely of apples.

Most commercial pizzas have tomato sauce on them, so is it that much of a stretch to say that the tomato sauce should count as a vegetable portion for the total food value of a meal?

How about a meat pie that contains vegetables and meat in a pastry shell? Since it is a single item, we should not allow the meat to be counted as meat? Or the vegetables to count as vegetables? Or the pastry shell to count as grains and starches?

What?

So you're saying that a tomato is not a tomato? I don't see the problem here?

Is V8 juice not vegetables then either?

lol I bet many people really do count pizza sauce and veggie pizza as healthy. It is certainly outrageous to think that the government has no responsibility for making school lunch nutritious, since there is a clear link between health and diet. However it never ceases to astonish me how few people make that diet-health connection. I just hope that the law makers actually fail to make that connection as well, and I assume that they do. Otherwise they would be downright malicious... Good find.

Oh and just a fun fact -- the category of "vegetables" does not exist in horticulture, which is the money-making part of agriculture, so there is lots of room for semantic shenanigans between horticulture and nutrition.

Some conservatives in Congress have called the push for healthier foods an overreach, saying the government shouldn’t be telling children what to eat.

This statement pretty much sums up any argument we are going to have in this thread.

It's typical for a bought and paid for congress.

Can we also do away with the left/right nonsense and agree that pretty much ALL politicians with a few exceptions are corrupt and couldn't care less about anyone but themselves and their own.

I'm going out to my garden to check on my Hawaiian with jalapenos and my pepperoni pies now.
They're just starting to get all melty awesome.

The government wants to tax food that doesn't meet their health standards. They don't care if you think its healthy or not, they just want more money. This has nothing to do with keeping people healthy and lean. I'm glad the GOP is taking actions to keep pizza cheap. Americans LOVE pizza. I love pizza. Don't mess with my pizza!

reply to post by butcherguy


veg·e·ta·ble/ˈvejtəbəl/
Noun:
A plant or part of a plant used as food, typically as accompaniment to meat or fish, such as a cabbage, potato, carrot, or bean.

(and to pre-empt any confusion on your part:

ac·com·pa·ni·ment
[uh-kuhm-puh-ni-muhnt, uh-kuhmp-ni-]
noun
1.
something incidental or added for ornament, symmetry, etc.)

So no. Pizza doesn't fit the definition, nor do any of your examples.

Nice try through I'm sure your reaction would be EXACTLY the same had this been introduced by Democrats!

Originally posted by Carseller4

Some conservatives in Congress have called the push for healthier foods an overreach, saying the government shouldn’t be telling children what to eat.

This statement pretty much sums up any argument we are going to have in this thread.

Since the original source is StinkProgress, this will thread will devolve into a "Four legs good, two legs better" debate.

Originally posted by wagnificent
It is certainly outrageous to think that the government has no responsibility for making school lunch nutritious...

It's not the federal government's friggin business to tell us what to eat! Next they will tell you what prescriptions to use, how to bathe, and whom to sleep with. Welcome to 1984.

Reminds me like how spaghetti sauce containers say that a serving of their sauce has a serving of vegetables.

I looked really hard, I didn't see them?

reply to post by negativenihil
You fail.

Here is a menu:

Chicken vegetable pie.

Applesauce.

Chef's Salad.

Cherry pie.

According to your response to me, there are no vegetables, fruits or grains present on this menu.

I am a libertarian. Feed, clothe and bathe your children at home, on your own expense. And stick your Democrat/Republican politicians where they will feel at home.

Originally posted by the owlbear
I'm going out to my garden to check on my Hawaiian with jalapenos and my pepperoni pies now.
They're just starting to get all melty awesome.

I hear ya. My candy corn and Boston Baked Beans didn't do squat this year. Probably because the pesticide didn't kill all of the gummy worms. Next year I'm planting circus peanuts.

Originally posted by satron
Reminds me like how spaghetti sauce containers say that a serving of their sauce has a serving of vegetables.

I looked really hard, I didn't see them?

As another poster mentioned..... V-8 vegetable juice is made from vegetables, just like spaghetti sauce is. You must have been reading the wrong label. The main ingredient in most commercial spaghetti sauces is....... tomatoes. The government classifies them as a vegetable, they like some other vegetables are technically a fruit.

reply to post by butcherguy


What, no pizza on your menu? I'm sorry but you're entire argument just feels completely disingenuous. If you're honestly fine with labeling pizza or chicken pie as a vegetable, then by all means, feel free to do so in your own home. Just don't piss and moan that your kids are 300lbs by age 16 and come down with type 2 diabetes.

But really, we both know you're just arguing this because you see this as your team vs mine. Again, I am totally confident you'd react this way had a Democrat introduced this!

(Also, FYI - I don't write dictionaries, those aren't "my" definitions.)

Hey, potato chips is a vegetable!

Why didn't you think of that?

For your health!

reply to post by negativenihil

Just don't piss and moan that your kids are 300lbs by age 16 and come down with type 2 diabetes.

I have four children and they are not troubled by these problems. and they have eaten pizza. Have you?